Face. Meet Keyboard.

And then meet screen. And then meet tabletop.

Query letters are bastards to write. Really there’s no other word. Writing the book was easier. Even editing was easier. Since I wrote the first draft of my query, I’ve done more drafts than I did of my novel (12 vs. 6). It’s also taken the same amount of time as my manuscript revisions took (four months), and nearly as much time as the first draft.

That’s insane.

Now I’m at the point where I’m obsessing over single words. Leave it in or take it out? Where to put the most weight, voice, hook, concept or pacing? And the big one for me, Canadian or American spelling?

I’m losing sleep over it. I’m waking up at 4am to take out a comma or move two sentences around. THE QUERY MUST BE PERFECT YOUR ENTIRE PUBLISHING CAREER IS DEPENDING ON IT the internet screams.

I’m giving myself 48 more hours and then whatever I have at that point is what goes out. Seriously, enough is enough.

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2 Responses to “Face. Meet Keyboard.”

Solidarity, sister! It’s maddening for a novelist to have to put an entire novel on one page. If I could do that really well, I would write lots and lots of uni-paged novels. Best wishes for a successful query process!

Oh, I love this. I admire how long you work and improve before you send it off, you have more patience than I do. Best of luck–I hope it’s adored by the publisher! If not, your career ISN’T depending on it, and off it will go to the next editor.